Yarra Glen successful in eighth running of Pride Cup

Yarra Glen hosted the eighth running of the Pride Cup over the weekend which provided a great result for the River Pig community, continuing its unbeaten run of wins in senior football as Jayden Schill collected the Pride Medal for being best on ground.

In line with its theme of rotating its opponent every year to spread the awareness of the Pride Cup, Belgrave took the reigns as the opposition this year and despite inaccurate scoring from both sides, Yarra Glen were able to maintain a comfortable buffer over the Magpies throughout the match to record its first win of season 2022.

On the netball court, the female representatives of both clubs fought out a hard battle to get the advantage over the other, but the River Pigs went down for its third loss in A Grade netball since the inauguration of the Pride Cup, with Ashlee Murphy of Belgrave claiming the Pride Medal as best on court.

Despite a low crowd attendance compared to previous years, Yarra Glen club secretary David Ball was happy with how this year’s proceedings went overall.

“The lousy weather forecast hurt us a bit with the lack of people coming out to enjoy the day, but I feel like the day went well otherwise,” he said.

“It was great to see a face painter on hand for the kids and market stalls for people to browse while the football and netball was playing.”

In what was another successful weekend of running the Pride Cup event, Ball is confident that his club and the wider community have again made good progress about stamping out homophobia in sport, with Belgrave themselves undergoing an educational program to raise awareness of this in their club before taking part in the event.

“The feedback from them was very positive and they got a lot out of it as it’s all about making people aware that using homophobic language can be quite damaging for people,” he explained.

“It’s all about saving lives, so if we can continue creating an environment where people feel comfortable in a sporting community no matter if they’re gay or not, then that’s all we’re trying to do.

“We are starting to see a growing trend now particularly in younger people where they don’t care about where your preferences lie which means people are more comfortable to  come out around their mates.”

Summarising the event, Ball is pleased for efforts of everyone involved, but was particularly thankful towards two groups for their support.

“I am very grateful to Outer East FN for their support over this journey as well as everyone involved at Yarra Glen for their assistance in running another successful Pride Cup event,” he said.